ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER PARRIES ACCUSATIONS AGAINST EXECUTIVE POWER

ArmInfo
2008-07-03 18:04:00

At the July 3 session of RA government, Armenian Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan parried several accusations against the executive power in
the oppositional press.

According to T.Sargsyan, today there are three serious accusations
against the government, however, these accusations are far from being
true. The government is being accused of the fact that 70-80% of
gasoline import in Armenia makes up shadow circulation, and thousands
of wagons are imported illegally. The prime minister noted that this
is impossible and such rumors aim to mislead the public and discredit
the authorities.

The second accusation is connected with allegedly artificial price
boost in Armenia to enrich the authorities. T.Sargsyan pointed out
that in the early 90s hyperinflation was observed in Armenia under
the influence of external factors. "Both then and now the authorities
were not interested in high inflation as this is connected first and
foremost with their image", he said. He added that today they think
in the world how to restrain the unprecedented inflation of fuel and
food commodities. As compared with 2007, 9,9% inflation was fixed in
Armenia and 8% was conditioned by the increase in prices of imported
goods, he said.

The prime minister also noted that the sale of gold and exchange
reserves is also an object of state speculation. The Central Bank
took a political decision to export gold to Switzerland as early
as 1994. Metallic exchange deposit accounts in USD were opened in
Switzerland. The physical being of gold in Armenia couldn’t contribute
to settlement of economical and social problems, therefore a decision
was taken to make this gold a profitable asset, Sargsyan said. In 2003
the CBA took another decision to convert the accounts into pounds,
as a result Armenia obtained $2,3 mln net profit which was completely
transferred to the state budget, he added. The main accusation is
that if the gold had been sold not in the 90s but in 2008, it would
have been possible to obtain much bigger profit with due regard for
the increase in gold prices. However, Sargsyan said that following
this logic one shouldn’t have held privatization of enterprises in
the 90s as today these assets are much more expensive.